Dark Magus Returns

Sha Mo and Lince stuttered forward the moment they saw Raze's hands lift into the air. They had seen him do this move before; everyone had, so they knew what was coming next.

"Lince, if that kid kills my clan members, I won't be able to hold back!" Sha Mo said, tensing his fist as if he was ready to jump out and attack Raze himself at that moment.

"He won't do that… I'm sure," Lince said, but his face wasn't so sure. Sweat was running down his forehead. All he could think about was how Raze had saved Beret, but what if that was for his own goals, rather than because of his niceness? Just maybe he really would kill the Demonic Faction members.

When they all came close, Raze swung his sword down, but he did so at an angle.

"Eclipse Strike!"

The large attack swung in a line, and because it came at an angle, the others were able to see it and jump back. The attack was fast, though, and had crashed into the ground.

It was tearing it apart, lifting part of the flooring up, and large parts of the arena floor came out flying toward the students.

Using their own weapons and Qi, they were able to block it, and finally, the attack dwindled down.

Those watching from the arena could see the damage that had been caused. A good chunk of the flooring was gone, with a large cut that went at least a meter deep.

However, one thing was clear, and that was that none of the students were hurt. The attack that they had experienced, they all knew what it was.

Hannah went to look at the deep cut in the floor. "It was a warning to us… that if we try to attack… that he'll finish us."

Hannah heard the sound of her teammate collapsing on the floor. She quickly went over to Charlotte, who was on her knees, to check if there were any wounds on her, but there was nothing at all.

Her whole body was shaking, as if her soul had left her body in that moment.

'Going up against all of them, and with one person down and protecting the stone, it looks like even if I was to go all out and defeat that student… we would still lose.'

No one said anything, but it was as if everything had been decided. The Light Faction didn't go further or closer to Raze and stood there.

At the same time, the Demonic Faction didn't go closer either. The time was just running down, with Simyon holding onto the rock.

At times the crowd would speak, wondering what would happen. Maybe a fight would come up, maybe Brack would get too frustrated and try to attack on his own again.

Yet none of that happened, and the crowd didn't react in a negative way. They didn't shout out boos or words of discomfort for what happened because they all knew that none of them would have attempted to do it if they were in their shoes.

And then, the timer had eventually run out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the final event is over, and it perhaps went in a way that no one was expecting! It's time to announce the results!" The announcer claimed.

"In first place, we have the Dark Faction, in second place, the Light Faction, and lastly, we have the Demonic Faction!"

"Wait, what!" Brack shouted. "You're saying I held it for even shorter time than that puny girl."

"It's okay, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway; there was probably just a few seconds in it," Kaylie commented.

"With that, the final results for the group stage are in! In last and third place is the Demonic Faction with a total of 9 points, then we have the Light Faction with a total of 18 points.

"And we have the winner of the group stage, the Dark Faction with a total of 19 points!"

After the winner was announced, the crowd gave their claps and a round of applause. They weren't cheering as many wanted the Light Faction to win.

They thought for sure they would have won, but no one had expected the turn of events that had occurred, and in a way, for some reason, the Demonic Faction member had given the win to the Dark Faction.

Before everyone went back to their viewing station, Raze had a few words to say.

"Look after the reward, and don't lose it no matter what," Raze said.

It was clear this was directed at Safa as she was the only one close enough to hear.

While walking back, Raze thought back to his intentions. The Demonic Faction had no way to win the prize, so the only way to get his hands on it was to let the Dark Faction win.

The prize would be given to the students, and in turn, it would make its way back to him. If it ended up in the hands of the Dark Faction, it didn't matter anyway.

Because he planned to get rid of them at some point regardless, so it would eventually be his.

Safa heading back to the Dark Faction, she now had somewhat of an idea why Raze had done the actions he had done.

Whether the Dark Faction members would understand or have an explanation, she wasn't too sure.

When Raze arrived back with the others, Brack kicked a chair so fiercely it flew into the wall and broke into pieces.

"What the F*ck went on out there!" Brack shouted. "Are you going to explain yourself and explain what you did to us all!"

Now that Brack had Sha Mo with him, as well as the rest of the Demonic Faction, he was a bit more confident in confronting Raze.

"I have an explanation," Raze said calmly to them all. "No matter the result of the last event, we would have lost anyway.

"For one, if I was to ask you, if you would rather have the Light Faction win or the Dark Faction win, which would you choose?"

No one answered, but they knew that they felt slightly worse toward the Light Faction compared to the Dark Faction.

They were pleased that the same group didn't win twice in a row.

"As for the second reason, through my actions, it looked like I had helped the Dark Faction. After what you said, I thought about it," Raze said, looking at Lince.

"With this, the Light Faction will be confused; they might even think that we are working with the Dark Faction, giving them less reason to form an alliance."

The fact that no one argued back on what Raze said meant he gave a fair explanation, and even Lince was impressed that he had managed to think that far ahead.

But, only someone that was so confident that they could decide the winner or loser of the event could do something like that.

Lince wondered if this would be the start of a rise of a new powerful clan in the Demonic Faction.

"None of that matters anyway," Mantis said. "Because now that the group event is over, it's the singles fighting event, and you ain't pulling any of that sh*t on me. If the two of us fight, I'll rip you to shreds."

Raze didn't reply and went to sit down in his seat, but in his mind, he thought one thing.

'There's no way I'm letting anyone else win this event!'